The Phantom Empire (1935)
When the ancient continent of Mu sank beneath the ocean, some of its inhabitant survived in caverns beneath the sea. Cowboy singer Gene Autry stumbles upon the civilization, now buried beneath his own Radio Ranch. The Muranians have developed technology and weaponry such as television and ray guns. Their rich supply of radium draws unscrupulous speculators from the surface. The peaceful civilization of the Muranians is corrupted by the greed from above, and it becomes Autry's task to prevent all-out war, ideally without disrupting his regular radio show.
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Sick Product of a Sick System
Don't listen to the negative reviews
The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.
Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.
Through 12 chapters Gene Autry has to fight two sets of villains and keep his radio contract calling for broadcasts from the Melody Ranch in The Phantom Empire. Not easy since he nor anyone else suspects that there's a lost Atlantis type civilization 20,000 plus feet below the surface of Melody Ranch. To begin with Gene is framed for the murder of his partner by phony professor J. Frank Glendon. His partner's kids Frankie Darro and Betsy King Ross believe him and stick with him throughout the serial. So do a pair of less than helpful sidekicks Smiley Burnette and Peter Potter.The Professor is after radium which he has reason to believe there is a huge deposit on the Melody Ranch. Little does he or anyone else suspect that there's an underground city called Murania run on the nuclear power this stuff has. It's ruled by Queen Dorothy Christy and she's got a traitorous chancellor in Wheeler Oakman looking to undermine her rule. She's also got access to the surface world with her troop of Thunder Riders who take a really big elevator up and down and then ride around looking for presumably supplies that they can't get down below. They're a mysterious bunch and Darro and Ross have seen them and have formed a junior Thunder Riders club.That elevator was really the most ridiculous part of the film. These people are taking 20,000 mile trips in a matter of minutes and no one's ears even pop, let alone getting one bad case of 'the bends'.If this all sounds ridiculous believe me it's even more so when you see it on the big or small screen. But unlike most of the movie serials of the day at least we get a few songs from Gene Autry including the one that launched his career in country music, That Silver Haired Daddy Of Mine.I'm not one to pass judgment really because I think movie serials in general are ridiculous. It's a genre form that thankfully is gone. But Gene Autry got a career out of this one.
Gene Autry serial is an odd mix of Scifi and westerns. To be certain its more western then scifi, but its enough to keep scifi fans interested.The plot has an evil professor looking for radium trying to drive Gene Autry away from his ranch under which is buried a great amount of ore. Complicating things is the fact that under the ranch is a hidden kingdom.What should have been a standard western serial are lifted by the good cast that has Autry, his band of regulars as well as Frankie Darro and others. Is it be all and end all? no. Frankly if it hadn't been for Autry this probably would have been long forgotten, then again if it wasn't for this serial we never would have had Gene Autry as a leading man.Worth a look for those in a western scifi mood or for those wanting to reconnect with movie history. Personally I like the serial in a goofy retro sort of way but seeing it again for the first time in years I realized that I didn't need to see it again and after jumping through some chapters I gave up and moved on. Worth a look if you've never seen it. If you have, try something else.
While certainly not in a league with Flash Gordon, Phantom Empire does have an art-deco underground city, an evil professor, tacky special effects, an ego-maniacal queen, and wildly misleading cliff-hangers at the end of each episode. Unfortunately, it also has a disappointing hero, a ragged print, and a juvenile setting in a "radio ranch." Gene Autry is a bland hero and comes across as too soft for modern tastes or at least for my taste. Also, while he may have been a singing star in his day, the action stops dead in its tracks every time an obligatory song begins. While the comic relief from two "adult" side-kicks would embarrass kiddie show hosts from the early 1950s, the two juvenile leads both manage to be more appealing and credible than most of the adults. But aside from the low points, there is enough fun in Phantom Empire to warrant a viewing. The cardboard "robots" and the "battles" with the soldiers, who look as though they wandered in from a sand-and-sandals epic shooting on the next sound stage, are a hoot. Despite some classic 1930s serial elements, however, Phantom is overall a disappointment.
I guess you really do have to be under 12 and never seen 1977's "Star Wars" to enjoy this one for what it is when viewing it for the first time. A little like raw cookie dough, it doesn't taste quite right when you're over 30, except in a setting of group intoxication. I also do not recommend seeing more than a few episodes at a single sitting, and there are 12.Gene Autry's old-timey Hollywood Western music, and his bandmates' yokel humor, are the two brightest notes in this cheesy tin-hat sci-fi serial. Everybody wears an exceptionally goofy hat, it seems, except Queen Tika in her relatively sedate tiara; even the silvery robots wear hats. Why the elevator is powered by a robot cranking it rather than being fully automated, perhaps belies the "advanced technology" of the Muranians (although they do have TV, a novelty in 1935). Why the Muranians thunder across the plain en masse on horseback, if they were hoping not to be discovered by surface folk, is another mystery. More baffling still is why the Muranians need breathing apparatus at the surface, while Gene Autry and his buddies need none when they are kidnapped to the underground kingdom. And (*SPOILER WARNING!!*) if the death ray, run amuck, can destroy the entire city, there's nothing stopping it from continuing to destroy everything in the beam's path until it reaches the Earth's surface -- which it doesn't. Note also that Queen Tika is the only female to be seen in this society. They must breed like bees.One of our party also notes that Gene seems to die more often than South Park's Kenny, only to be revived by the next episode. The Junior Thunder Riders, kids modeling themselves on people who at that point in the story are considered villains, look remarkably like the Klansmen riding to the ostensible rescue in "Birth of a Nation." A female championship trick rider is apparently only there to be the young-girl-in-jeopardy.If you are over 21, rent this one with some friends and plenty of beer and popcorn. It deserves to be shared, but do take a break now and then lest you hurt your brain.